I’m making the most of the summer by drinking lots of iced tea and sitting outside at any chance I get. I have to admit that it’s not been as often as I’d like as we’ve been having a lot of rain over the last couple of weeks. However, this week has started off lovely and sunny so I thought it was the perfect time to chat to you about homemade iced tea.
The best thing about making iced tea at home is that it’s really easy.
There are a couple of ways to do it but in today’s post I’m going to be sharing a quick and very simple method which you can try out right away.
I’m going to be using 3 teas from T2, all of which are perfect for making iced tea; Fruitalicious, Southern Sunrise and Turkish Apple Chunky.
When it comes to making a quick cup of iced tea there are just 4 simple steps:
1 – First you need to fill your teapot of choice with water at the correct temperature. I’m using the T2 Teamaker today.
2 – Add 3-4 teaspoons of tea and infuse for the recommended time on the box. I use the timer on my phone for this.
3 – Fill two heatproof glasses with ice and pour your brewed tea over the top.
4 – Garnish with fruit and serve up.
Yes, it really is that easy. When it comes to homemade iced tea I don’t like to add sugar. However, if you prefer to sweeten things up a bit then feel free to go ahead and add a little sugar during the brewing process.
I’m now going to talk you through each of the steps and share my thoughts on the teas I’ve been using.
Let’s start with Fruitalicious – this one smells beautiful as soon as you open up the box.
Fruitalicious is a mix of cranberries, blueberries, dragon fruit and goji berries. It’s a true fruity tea which makes it perfect for iced tea. I was pleased to see that there were lots of large chunks of fruit within the tea. I always think it’s a good sign when you can easily identify the different fruits within a fruity tea. Some fruit teas can have a very neat taste, but not this one. It’s a lovely strong flavour with obvious berry notes, lovely.
So, here I am filling up my T2 Teamaker with hot water and around 3 teaspoons of Fruitalicious. You can use any teapot to infuse the tea so don’t worry if you don’t have one of these. I’ve really enjoyed using the Teamaker, it’s a good quality one which makes a nice change as I’ve had a couple of similar products in the past and they can often be cheaply made. This one is very sturdy.
Let the tea brew for 3-6 minutes and then pour it into a heatproof glass filled with ice. I can get 2 big glasses of iced tea from the Teamaker. I find that leaving this tea to brew for around 6 minutes works best. It helps to get the full flavour out of the tea.
Finally garnish with fruit. I went with fresh cherries but I think blueberries would also work well and of course, frozen fruit.
Next we have Southern Sunrise. This is a real summery and refreshing tea. A few of the key flavours come from white hibiscus, lemongrass and grapefruit. It’s perfect to enjoy on a hot, sunny day and I personally love teas with lemongrass in.
This tea needs a good 5/6 minutes to brew before pouring into your cup of ice.
Not only does this tea smell beautiful when you open up the box but it also tastes delightful. It has a slight tart taste to it, but if you’re into grapefruit then you’ll love it. I was able to detect sweeter notes from the apple coming through but if you want to balance out the sourness try adding a little sugar.
This time I garnished the tea with pineapple to add natural sweetness. I think this one has to be one of my personal favourites and I can’t wait to make a fresh batch when I’ve finished writing this post.
The Turkish Apple Chunky tea has been a real favourite in my house, my dad is particularly keen on this one.
Something I learnt from my T2 Masterclass was to get creative and mix different teas together. Although this one tastes good on it’s own it also works really well mixed with black tea leaves. We normally add this in for a hot cup of tea but I decided to give this a try for the iced version.
It turned out really well. I simply added in a teaspoon of Ahmad Cardamom tea which gave a deeper flavour to the tea. Never be afraid to mix blends, tea is all about having fun.
I think it would be a fun idea to slice up an apple and freeze it to garnish this iced tea with. I’m sure I’ll be buying another box of this soon as it seems to be going down very quickly.
Have you been making iced tea this summer? Leave a comment below and let me know what your favourite flavours of iced tea are.